New ID scheme will reduce crime—Onyemenam

Since the last national identity card scheme was embroiled in scandal, Nigerians have developed apathy to it. But in this interview with Yusuf Alli, Managing Editor, Northern Operation, the new Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission, Dr. Chris Onyemenam, assures that the project is truly back on track because the lapses of the past had been corrected. He speaks on the newly improved and technology-driven ID card management system. Excerpts:

Why will Nigeria go through another ID card scheme, what are those things wrong with the past ID cards issued?

Let me put it in a different contest, rather than say can we know why we have to go through another card scheme, I want to put it differently and say the flipside is, are you really doing another ID card again? And if you are not doing another card, what exactly is the difference between what you are doing today and what has been done in the past? I hope that before you leave, we will take you to one of the few points that will bring home very closer to you, the difference between what we are doing now and what has being done in the past.

In past, the emphasis has been on an identity card or an identification token, something that represent a summary of the data that has been collected from you. Let’s take the example of a birth certificate or marriage certificate. They will put everything in a long register and then they will tear out something and give you as certificate evidence that you have been lawfully wedded and the same with birth certificate in the hospital. So when you got employed, the first thing they did was to give you a form to fill. They collected so much data from you but they gave you one plastic card that has just few of those information on it. Now, that identification token or form is given to you as something that identifies you or that represents your identity. We have the misconception that it is an evidence that data about you have been collected and kept somewhere.

Now, if you want to confirm the person’s identity, it is necessary but not sufficient for you to look at the picture on the plastic and look at the person’s face and you do the visual comparison and say yes, that is the person. Of course that is one way of confirmation. But you and I are Nigerians, we know we can work into a cyber café or a business centre and everything will be prepared and how reliable will that be? Now, take that scenario and extend it to secondary school, the university, drivers licence, international passport, voters card, an employee’s identity card, the card given to you as a member of the church, card given to you as a member of a group etc, So, it is easy for instance for people to claim to be who they are not. You can walk into somewhere and get a photo ID card and claim any name just because you want to cash a cheque in another person’s name and the only thing the bank does is the visual comparison and photocopy of that card and they keep it in case of the day of reckoning, they have no other place to fall back on. There is typically no deliberate attempt by anybody at referring to the database, the basis for which that card was issued. When you are about entering the plane at the airport and they ask for photo ID, they look at it and look at you, is that not what happens? That is not the verification of an identity.

A reliable verification of an identity will mean that that the security man at the counter or the staff member that is checking you should be able to look at you, look at the picture and even confirm that the information on the card is the same as the information on the database because that was the basis on which the card was issued and there is possibility that the card has been replaced. So, he needs to confirm that.

This has not been the case in the past. All we used to do was just issue a card; people hardly ever thought of the data you gave when you were asking for that service or when you were to be issued that card.

Sir, what does the new identity management offer?

What we are doing now is different. We are saying that can we focus on identity management and look at the various attributes of an individual, take someone and say each time you refer to this person, you are able to confirm the person’s identity and then tie it to a number that is randomly generated by a system and not by anybody so that that system would be difficult to mimic, imitate, counterfeit, and just name it. And that is why people are quick to refer to social security number in the US. That is not the only thing they use as a form of verification but I think the most important emphasis there has always been your security number and it is one thing that typically follows you from birth to death. Even when you want to claim any other thing, they ask for that. We are working on something we can do to help organize this whole area of who you are and your ability to affirm your identity. When we have established that, we can then say can we represent part or half of that information on your card. Once we do that and store that information, it can still be used for other purposes. Then we are managing identity, we are making it available for other uses.

Our goal is to manage identity. So, on the face of it, it will look like we are doing the same thing but we truly are not. You would want to say the person doing economics and sociology are doing more or less the same thing but at the end of the day, they are given different degrees. Maybe in part one or part two they did some courses together, but come to think of it, at one point, you will see the difference.

What are the inherent gains in managing an identity?

It will boost the nation’s economy and enhance its security system. I see the impact that this would have on the economy and Nigeria of tomorrow. Business would come because business environment would start opening up.

Business will come, for example, because consumer credit will become far more possible to operate. The consumer credit institution will flourish because the extension of consumer credit will be a lot easier when, unlike the present, operators know the identity of the people they are dealing with.

What identity management means is that Nigerians will have proper credit history. And with proper credit history, renting a building, for example, will not require tying down money for one year or more because paying for rent for a year or more can pay for mortgage.

Identity management will so transform the way business is done in the same way if not better than what the GSM has done to our economy.

It will co-transform the way business is done, in a similar pattern which certain sectors have impacted on the economy. I used say there are four policies in my own opinion which hold the key to the total transformation of the economy. One has been the GSM, the second is pension, the third is power and the fourth is a good ID Management system. Every other one can build on it. If it is impossible for you to commit a crime and get away with it, the incentives to commit a crime will reduce. The stories of Unknown Soldier, some unknown persons will be history because once you can trace something to somebody, it becomes easier to establish through the ID Management system. So law enforcement agencies will have so much value out of this system.

So, with a proper identity management in place, and greater probability of being caught, the propensity to commit crime would no longer be there because even some of the criminally-minded people forget that even before they put on gloves over their hands, somewhere their fingerprints exist and can be taken from somewhere else.

But how far have you gone in managing this identity because we feel the long wait is becoming unbearable?

I appreciate this fact and I have heard it many people saying they have been waiting and very often the question asked is: When are we going to get this new card? Even when I finish explaining that our focus is not on the card, the next question is still the same.